USDA chief: 'A lot of concern' about corn crop

DesMoinesRegister.com
By PHILIP BRASHER • pbrasher@dmreg.com • June 5, 2008

Washington, D.C. — Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said today that he has a "lot of concern" about the nation's weather-battered corn crop.

A steady succession of storms and cool weather in the Midwest slowed planting this spring and has prevented many farmers from replanting fields where crops failed to come up.

"We're trying to do everything we can to deal with it. We're monitoring it closely because it is of concern," Schafer told reporters from Rome, where he was attending a summit on the global food crisis. Worries about the impact of rising grain prices on livestock producers recently led the Agriculture Department to allow grassland in the federal Conservation Reserve Program to be grazed or cut for hay.

Schafer did not say what further the Bush administration might do. The government's options are generally limited. The ethanol usage mandate for refiners could be waived, but economists say that would have a minimal impact on ethanol production because the soaring price of oil would still make it economical to make fuel from corn.

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